01.2 Executive Summary A Word from Orrick There has been a nearly five-fold innovation – as companies in every growth in European venture capital sector recognize the need to adapt to investment in the last five years. the tech transformation. There are five times the number of unicorns – with at least 17 new billion Altogether these trends point to a dollar plus companies added in the robust future for European tech. past year alone. The European tech sector has produced nearly four times However, the Report’s purpose is the job growth rate of the general to shine a light on all of “the issues economy, resulting in a talent pool of that matter” in the European tech programmers and STEM researchers ecosystem. We applaud Atomico for surpassing that of the United States. highlighting some deeply troubling ones: 46% of women in tech report Tech and innovation is no longer on the experiencing discrimination and only sidelines in Europe – it is driving the 7% of capital went to female founded economy. That’s the clear take-away companies or mixed gender founding from this year’s State of European Tech teams. That’s not right – and it’s not Report. sustainable if Europe truly wants to innovate. We also applaud Atomico’s At Orrick, we see it in our practice collaboration with Diversity VC to every day as we have helped founders, provide guidance to founder teams on investors and corporate venture clients how to build a diverse and inclusive raise or deploy more than $3.7 billion culture. Awareness and education across Europe over the past year. are a key first step. Investors have an essential role to play. The good news As a global tech law firm, we’re not is that there’s an incredible amount surprised to see investors from around of unfunded talent out there. Let’s all the world chasing strong returns from participate in the conversation about their European investments. While U.S. how to dramatically improve next year’s investment returned to 2016 levels after results. another record-breaking performance last year, investment from Asia We’re grateful to Atomico for the continued to grow. opportunity once again to help provide this data to the tech community in We’re encouraged by corporate venture Europe and globally. We hope you investment growth, particularly from find it as useful as we do in seeing the outside traditional tech industries. patterns and opportunities in this rich This affirms the strong demand for and promising ecosystem. Chris Grew Partner, Technology Companies Group Orrick 13 In Partnership with & www.thestateofeuropeantech.com